Both teams made late changes with Jason Tovey pulling out with illness to be replaced by Gareth Davies on the bench and former Blues fly-half Dan Parks pulling out of the Connacht starting line up with a hamstring problem, to be replaced by Miah Nikora.

It was Connacht who started the brightest with a try from Daniel Poolman within two minutes after the visitors had taken a quick tap penalty and spread the ball right, working the overlap well, for the winger to touch down in the corner. Things got worse for the Blues when Connacht doubled their try tally minutes later when Willie Faloon crashed through the middle to score under the posts. Nikora slotted the easy conversion.

Patchell got a penalty back for the Blues to get them on the scoreboard, which started a period of dominance for the Blues. A clever break and chip ahead by Lewis Jones saw Connacht pinned back in their own twenty-two with a lineout that James Down stole superbly. When the ball was moved left Copeland took out a couple of Connacht defenders before Patchell showed his strength to take out another two and feed Robinson to touch down in the corner.

The Blues were looking enterprising with Harry Robinson looking sharp, coming off his wing proving a threa,t but it was Connacht who got the final score of the half with a penalty for Nikora after the Blues strayed offside.

Half time Cardiff Blues 8 Connacht 15

Patchell kicked a Blues penalty early in the second half after Jason Harris-Wright was shown a yellow for interfering with a Blues attack when they were only yards from the Connacht try-line. Patchell got another penalty soon after to narrow the deficit to a point.

However, Nikora slotted a penalty but the Blues soon struck back again. Substitute Liam Davies, who was making his debut for the Blues, made an instant impact, sprinting down the right touchline before flipping back inside to Robin Copeland to gather and run in for the try. Patchell kicked wide with the conversion.

The lead didn't last long when Willie Faloon scored his second try for the visitors after breaking from a lineout but Nikora was wide with the extras.

Patchell and Nikora exchanged penalties to make it a four-point margin with ten minutes left and despite a late rally the Blues ran out of time to go down 22-26.